Man, this really really suxors

[MTAS]

First let me say I have a Philips 55PW6393 using the Pace from BHN connected via DVI, and I watch all channels through the DVI. So I'm watching Enterprise last night, and out of curiosity I switch inputs on the TV to the coax. Man what a difference. I'd say the picture looked maybe 50% better. What gives? Am I gonna have to go through three inputs just to surf? Coax for channels 2-99, S-Video for channels 100-142, and DVI for the HD stuff? There's got to be a better way(?) Or is it something I'll have to live with until something better (box wise) comes along?

[bdraw]

First let me say I have a Philips 55PW6393 using the Pace from BHN connected via DVI, and I watch all channels through the DVI. So I'm watching Enterprise last night, and out of curiosity I switch inputs on the TV to the coax. Man what a difference. I'd say the picture looked maybe 50% better. What gives? Am I gonna have to go through three inputs just to surf? Coax for channels 2-99, S-Video for channels 100-142, and DVI for the HD stuff? There's got to be a better way(?) Or is it something I'll have to live with until something better (box wise) comes along?

It's isn't the Pace box's fault.
The problem is that your TV has a better scaler than the BHN box.

Most STB don't scale as well as TV's.

I have a fix for this.

Don't watch SD!
:)

[passedpawn]

First let me say I have a Philips 55PW6393 using the Pace from BHN connected via DVI, and I watch all channels through the DVI. So I'm watching Enterprise last night, and out of curiosity I switch inputs on the TV to the coax. Man what a difference. I'd say the picture looked maybe 50% better. What gives? Am I gonna have to go through three inputs just to surf? Coax for channels 2-99, S-Video for channels 100-142, and DVI for the HD stuff? There's got to be a better way(?) Or is it something I'll have to live with until something better (box wise) comes along?

It's isn't the Pace box's fault.
The problem is that your TV has a better scaler than the BHN box.

Most STB don't scale as well as TV's.

I have a fix for this.

Don't watch SD!
:)

Note that when using DVI on the analog cable channels, the signal needs to digitized, sent over DVI, then converted back to analog in the TV. If the coax output is used, the analog continues to the TV directly. Any time an analog signal is digitized, some loss is incurred. Also, noise is added to the signal.

Whether this has any noticeable effect on the picture depends on 1) the bandwidth of the digitizing circuits, and 2) how well designed the analog inputs to the digitizer are. Signals that contain digital information (like the HD channels) would be immune to both of these problems. I am just guessing at all this, but it seems possible that bad analog circuit design is just as likely the culprit as the digital design (scaler) that Bdraw referred to.